Mavs pull out win over E-W

Published 5:34 pm Thursday, January 17, 2008

EDMONDS

Meadowdale went inside and outside to snap Edmonds-Woodway’s eight-game winning streak.

Senior guard Paul Werner scored 16 of his team-high 23 points mostly from long range in a sizzling first half performance.

But with the game on the line, the Mavericks turned to senior center Evan Matteson, who dominated play inside with nine points in the fourth quarter, to lift Meadowdale to a 61-55 victory over Edmonds-Woodway in a Western Conference South Division boys basketball game Jan. 12 at Edmonds-Woodway High School.

The victory means that Meadowdale swept the season series with its district arch-rival after getting swept last year.

“We’re happy with our effort tonight,” said Meadowdale head coach Chad McGuire. “It’s a big win. We’re happy with any league win, to be honest with you. This one is meaningful for our players. It’s a rivalry game. It feels good.”

The Mavericks caught a couple of breaks as senior guard James Conti was held out of the game due to an ankle injury and senior center Connor Donaldson, who led Edmonds-Woodway with 23 points, missed the final 2 minutes and 24 seconds after he reaggravated a knee injury.

Donaldson, who first injured his knee in a Dec. 27 game against Bishop Blanchet, needed assistance to get back to the Warriors’ bench. He was, however, walking around unaided after the game.

“You never want to see a player get hurt,” McGuire said. “He’s a great kid and I hope he’s OK. You want to beat people with their people at full strength.”

Donaldson scored the Warriors’ last seven points before leaving the game. Matteson gave Meadowdale a 48-45 lead with a pair of free throws at the 5:42 mark of the fourth quarter. Donaldson cut the deficit to 48-47 on a basket before Werner’s two free throws boosted the lead to 50-47.

Edmonds-Woodway’s 6-foot-6 senior center then tied the score at 50 with a basket and free throw and then gave the Warriors a 52-50 lead on a putback basket of his own missed shot with 2:38 remaining.

Matteson then tied the score at 52 just seconds before Donaldson fell to the floor in agony.

“My knee gave out like last time against Blanchet,” Donaldson said. “I twisted it again.”

Meadowdale already had decided to try to get the ball to Matteson even before Donaldson went down.

Following an Edmonds-Woodway turnover, Matteson gave the Mavericks a 54-52 lead with a pair of free throws.

“When it gets to be the fourth quarter, you want good shot selection,” McGuire said. “So the best thing is to go inside in those situations, especially when you have a great shooter like Paul. They have to account of him too. So it kind of opens things up inside.”

Senior guard Matt Gorman and senior guard Jake Clampitt followed with back-to-back shots to give Meadowdale a 58-52 advantage with less than a minute left in the game.

Meadowdale junior guard Roger O’Neill made one of two free throws before Edmonds-Woodway senior guard Max Ortiz responded with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 59-55. O’Neill closed out the scoring with a pair of free throws.

“Offensively, I thought we executed really well,” McGuire said. “We were able to get the ball down to Evan Matteson down in the block. He did a nice job of attacking the hoop. He made a couple of lay-ins and then he got to the free throw line a couple of times.”

Donaldson expects Edmonds-Woodway to bounce back from the loss.

“We were on a pretty good pace, eight in a row,” Donaldson said. “We learned a lot from this game about adversity and execution down the stretch.”

Edmonds-Woodway coach Gail Pintler acknowledged that the loss of Donaldson hurt the Warriors down the stretch. But the absence of Conti had just as big or more of an impact.

“We just don’t have a point guard as effective as James,” Pintler said. “(At) the end, we made some really poor choices, trying to make things happen instead of letting them happen.”

Edmonds-Woodway wasn’t surprised that Meadowdale went to their 6-9 senior center in the fourth quarter.

“He played very well at the end,” Pintler said. “He was exactly what we thought he would be. We chose to try and beat them with speed. They went to the big man and beat us.”

In the two team’s first meeting back in December, Gorman led the Mavericks with 15 points. In Saturday’s game, it was Werner and Matteson’s time to shine.

Meadowdale’s depth is its strength and Werner is hoping it will lead to more success in the second half of the regular season

“We share the ball well and we’ve got a lot of guys who can score,” he said. “We just move the ball around to different people. You can’t take away everything. You can take away the first option and the second option, but you can’t take away everything.”